Revelation 4:9-11
And when the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

We were all created for the Almighty's pleasure. This is the fundamental principle and truth that anyone who wishes to please God and find friendship with Him must come to understand, accept, and love. His great love for us, for the world, His creation, should produce in us a great love. Because nothing exists by accident, by necessity, or primarily for itself. Everything that is, first existed in His will, and then was spoken into being by His act. Creation is not self-originating. It is a gift and has a purpose in Him.

Friendship begins when a creature stops trying to be the center and gladly takes its place as one who exists because He wanted it so.

His love; first displayed in bringing us into being, then displayed at far greater cost in the Lamb who was slain, is meant to kindle an answering love in us. This is the love that causes John to weep greatly when he believes no one is worthy to open the scroll with seven seals (5:1). The worship of the Creator is glorious, but the plan of redemption and the consummation of all things still lies sealed within the scroll. And so, we see another fundamental truth, creation-worship alone cannot unseal redemptive history. Only the slain-and-risen Lamb can. Nothing the church does on its own can become worthy for such a task. The elders casting their crowns at Christ's feet is the visual theology of this truth. They are declaring that every honor, every reward, every measure of authority they have received is derivative. It came from Him and must return to Him. This is the opposite of the self-exalting spirit that marks both the world and, all too often, the church. This scene is given to us now so that our worship, our work, and our endurance can already take this shape.

What this means is Heaven’s worship is not a program; it is a living response. The living creatures there (representing the fullness of created life; wild, domestic, human, and flying) declare who God is. He is the Creator of life. We exist only because He willed it, and therefore every crown belongs at His feet.

John loved The Lord God Jesus with all his heart, mind, spirit, and strength. And he referred to himself often as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." That was not a boast. It was the only identity he could still use after years of walking with the Lord, after the cross, after the resurrection, after decades of shepherding. He knew himself first as loved. This is not sentiment. It is the confession of a man who had learned that everything else is derivative.

That love cannot remain abstract once it has seen the Lamb. This is Love that has seen the Lamb and cannot bear a universe in which the Lamb’s work remains closed. The earth He made for His own pleasure is still under the temporary claim of the usurper. He who is falsely reigning as earth's king must be proven for the devilish antichrist pretender that he is.

The scroll is the instrument of that unmasking and that reclaiming. It is already His. He holds the claim. He does not open the seals in order to become worthy; He opens them because He is worthy. Therefore the seal must be opened to redeem the earth from Satan's grip. It is His to claim and redeem, He holds that claim, but it must be opened to claim what is His. To prove His ownership He must open the seals.

This is the ultimate game of thrones. It is how the rightful King takes back what was made for His pleasure and bought at the cost of His life.

We live as exiles in a land that is not yet openly His, though it has never ceased to be His. The earth was made for His pleasure. It was purchased by the blood of the Lamb. Yet for a season it lies under a permitted occupation. The Satanic pretender exercises a false reign, and many of the children of men have joined in his rebellion. Meanwhile the people of God are living as sojourners and strangers, like Judah did in Babylonian exile.

By example, in the time of Jeremiah (Jeremiah chapter 32), while the city is under siege and the land is already as good as lost, the prophet is told to buy the field at Anathoth. He pays the price, signs the deed, seals it, and has the documents placed in a clay jar "that they may last a long time." The point is not that Jeremiah suddenly gains new rights. The point is that the original ownership still stands, and God Himself will see to it that the deed is produced and the land reclaimed when the exile ends. The sealed document is the pledge that captivity is not the last word.

So it is with the scroll in the right hand of Him who sits on the throne in John's vision. It is the title, the testament, the recorded claim. The earth is already His by creation and by purchase.

No man was found worthy. And that is why the elders cast their crowns. They know themselves as exiles who have already been given a share, yet every share is derivative. The deed is The Lamb's to open. Our part, like Jeremiah’s, is to believe the promise, to keep the hope of return, and to refuse to act as if the present occupation is final.

We exist because He willed it. We are loved. We are still in Babylon. But the jar has been buried, the price has been paid, and the only One worthy to open the deed is about to take it from the hand of the Father.

I believe the time is soon.

Yes, many throughout history have said as much, but what we see going on in the earth today is the fulfillment of the age of information. The age that the knowledge of good and evil has been building up towards.

Knowledge has increased. The earth now groans under an age that can move information farther and faster than any generation before it. Men run to and fro. Distinctions God made are blurred. Power concentrates. The pretender’s claim grows more visible, more technological, more total in its reach. We're witnessing transhumanism's emergence. This is the old lie in a new body. The lie that says that the creature can improve upon the Creator’s work, extend itself beyond the dust, and finally become like God. None of that is imaginary. Daniel was told that knowledge would increase as the end drew near. John was told it was already the last hour. Both can be true at once.

Transhumanism is the refusal to remain a creature who exists because He willed it. It offers another tree, another knowledge, another way to seize what was never ours to take. It is the pretender’s gospel.

The gospel that preaches life without the Lamb, glory without the cross, a kingdom without the King who made all things for His pleasure. All the churches have been infected by this teaching. The religious people worship at his altars. Bend their knees to his pretenders. And delight themselves in the usurper's pretense. The kingdom without the King has spread throughout the pulpits and programs the way leaven spreads through a lump. That is the pretender’s liturgy, and it has found a home in many places that still keep the name of Christ on the door.

Where is the hope?

Hope is not located in the present health of the churches as a bloc. Hope is located where John was told to look when he wept. His throne in heaven is still occupied. He has not been deposed. And He alone is worthy to open the claim.

This is why the seven letters come first to the churches. Even in Sardis there were a few who had not soiled their garments. Even in Thyatira there were those who did not know the deep things of Satan. Even in Laodicea the Lord stood at the door and knocked.

The book of Revelation never pretends the churches are pure. It also never pretends the throne is empty or the deed is lost.

The hope is that He willed it, not because the church age got it right.

The hope is in the fact that we are loved, even while we exist in exile that we brought upon ourselves.

The hope is in that scroll in His hand that only HE can open.

And today? In the enemies territory? The hope is in the remnant who will not take the pretender’s fruit, who test the spirits, who keep the testimony of Jesus, who would rather be called exiles in Babylon than partners in the occupation.

The gospel of lies says the hope is that we will purify the age in time. But how can that be? We don't hold the keys to hades and death. We don't hold the scroll, and even if we did claim to hold it (as the Romanists believe), we aren't worthy to open it. That right has NOT been given over to ANY church entity. And any who claim that right are liars like their father of lies. Any who claim that right for themselves speak with the voice of the pretender. Do not follow them. Do not fear them. Do not become them.

Be watching for these pretentious people. Keep your wicks trimmed. Keep your oil filled to overflowing. But also, watch for the ones who know themselves as loved and as exiles. Who test the spirits. Those who are keeping the testimony of Jesus. Encouraging one another, keep each other on the pathway of Christ's righteous claim. Find them. Walk with them. Encourage one another.

Watch. Stay together. Stay ready. Come, Lord Jesus.

Amen! 🙏🏼